Affirmative action at colleges and universities is now history. The US Supreme Court ruled that the race-based admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional. That means that colleges must admit students based on merit and not simply on the basis of their skin color. But hasn’t this been the American ideal all along? One person shouldn’t be preferred over another just because of their race. In fact, race-based policies only further the racial divide. Justice Clarence Thomas said it best in his Court opinion: “The solution to our Nation’s racial problems thus cannot come from policies grounded in affirmative action or some other conception of equity. Racialism simply cannot be undone by different or more racialism.”